Janet Van Dyne: The Wasp Appreciation 2020

[Thirteen]

It’s disheartening to read that writers - Gail Simone, other female writers, writers in general - have an aversion to writing for the character Janet Van Dyne because of the history of her portrayal rooted in less enlightened times.

My first exposure to Jan as the Wasp was in a 2 parter in “Spectacular Spider-Man” #105-106) and simply put, in the parlance of current day: Janet Van Dyne was “F*ck with the Patriarchy AF.”



Did she play into the perception that she wasn’t taken seriously? Yep and used it to bite the other characters in the arse. And, yes, she’d rather have been on vacation than dealing with the mafia having infiltrated her business holdings - the horror.
Layered characterization and subverting expectations and stereotypes has fallen out of favor because of the “well why should said character HAVE to take a less than direct approach? factor. I get it. Every blonde doesn’t have to play dumb (or be lacking in some areas) to show they’re smart. It’s called PATRONizing for a reason.
But the writing it took to bridge the gap from the old ways to the new woke approach to characters was, at times, brilliantly entertaining. That writing, nor the characters it serviced, should be devalued for having taken the journey.


And I if I never have to hear Captain America or another character MANsplain how Jan “hides an adept tactical mind of a leader behind all that fluff and fashion”....

[Snoop Dogg]

oooo damn that outfit's poppin

[Captain M]

oooo damn that outfit's poppin

agreed

and great post, Thirteen

[Nyssane]

Did she play into the perception that she wasn’t taken seriously? Yep and used it to bite the other characters in the arse. And, yes, she’d rather have been on vacation than dealing with the mafia having infiltrated her business holdings - the horror.
Layered characterization and subverting expectations and stereotypes has fallen out of favor because of the “well why should said character HAVE to take a less than direct approach? factor. I get it. Every blonde doesn’t have to play dumb (or be lacking in some areas) to show they’re smart. It’s called PATRONizing for a reason.
But the writing it took to bridge the gap from the old ways to the new woke approach to characters was, at times, brilliantly entertaining. That writing, nor the characters it serviced, should be devalued for having taken the journey.


And I if I never have to hear Captain America or another character MANsplain how Jan “hides an adept tactical mind of a leader behind all that fluff and fashion”....

I love that. Jan really needs a writer to come along that gets all of that and can hopefully change minds of those who write her off because of the era the character was created in.

[Captain M]

I love that. Jan really needs a writer to come along that gets all of that and can hopefully change minds of those who write her off because of the era the character was created in.

I'd spam the clapping emoji if I could.

Also imagine disliking a character for this reason when most writers write any character the way they want to anyways with little regard to their past stories. Such bad excuse.

[Thirteen]

oooo damn that outfit's poppin

That costume still holds a special place in my heart both because of it being what Wasp was wearing when I first discovered the character at length and also because of this “off the runway” Ru-veal transition moment the artist Luke McDonnell gave the suit...

[Frontier]

Also imagine disliking a character for this reason when most writers write any character the way they want to anyways with little regard to their past stories. Such bad excuse.

And it's not like the modern "cool" heroines haven't had bad portrayals in the past themselves, or are all that similar to how they were written back then, especially for Carol Danvers or even Jessica Drew.

[Electricmastro]

It’s disheartening to read that writers - Gail Simone, other female writers, writers in general - have an aversion to writing for the character Janet Van Dyne because of the history of her portrayal rooted in less enlightened times.

My first exposure to Jan as the Wasp was in a 2 parter in “Spectacular Spider-Man” #105-106) and simply put, in the parlance of current day: Janet Van Dyne was “F*ck with the Patriarchy AF.”



Did she play into the perception that she wasn’t taken seriously? Yep and used it to bite the other characters in the arse. And, yes, she’d rather have been on vacation than dealing with the mafia having infiltrated her business holdings - the horror.
Layered characterization and subverting expectations and stereotypes has fallen out of favor because of the “well why should said character HAVE to take a less than direct approach? factor. I get it. Every blonde doesn’t have to play dumb (or be lacking in some areas) to show they’re smart. It’s called PATRONizing for a reason.
But the writing it took to bridge the gap from the old ways to the new woke approach to characters was, at times, brilliantly entertaining. That writing, nor the characters it serviced, should be devalued for having taken the journey.


And I if I never have to hear Captain America or another character MANsplain how Jan “hides an adept tactical mind of a leader behind all that fluff and fashion”....

And perhaps it’s not too different from other writers pushing Ant-Man to the side because he carelessly slapped Wasp, even though they both later made up. I don’t think a character should be judged just for what happened in the past, but for what happens in the present as well.

[Michael Watkins]

And perhaps it’s not too different from other writers pushing Ant-Man to the side because he carelessly slapped Wasp, even though they both later made up. I don’t think a character should be judged just for what happened in the past, but for what happens in the present as well.

Scott never slapped Jan. they are actually fun as a adventuring duo from what little i've seen of them as a duo.

[Electricmastro]

Scott never slapped Jan. they are actually fun as a adventuring duo from what little i've seen of them as a duo.

Ah, I was referring to Hank Pym.

[Digifiend]

Hank was Yellowjacket at the time. And he's not been Ant-Man since then has he? Once Scott debuted, Hank was always Giant-Man or Yellowjacket, except for the period when he thought Janet was dead, and took the Wasp identity, and a period in the 90s when he had no costumed identity at all. Of course now, all five of Hank's hero identities (the fifth being Goliath) belong to someone else.

[Electricmastro]

Hank was Yellowjacket at the time. And he's not been Ant-Man since then has he? Once Scott debuted, Hank was always Giant-Man or Yellowjacket, except for the period when he thought Janet was dead, and took the Wasp identity, and a period in the 90s when he had no costumed identity at all. Of course now, all five of Hank's hero identities (the fifth being Goliath) belong to someone else.

Details, details. ;P

[klynn]

I just caught up with the Tony Stark: Iron Man run for my Janet fix. Has she appeared in the 2020 Iron Man book? Has she been in The Black Panther and the Agents of Wakanda series past the first two issue?

[Frontier]

Scott never slapped Jan. they are actually fun as a adventuring duo from what little i've seen of them as a duo.

I've liked their team-ups in the past. Not sure if I'd like to see them as consistent partners.

I just caught up with the Tony Stark: Iron Man run for my Janet fix. Has she appeared in the 2020 Iron Man book? Has she been in The Black Panther and the Agents of Wakanda series past the first two issue?

As to the former, I can attest she makes a cameo.

[gurkle]

One thing where Jan is different from the other Silver Age heroines of Marvel is that Sue, Jean and Wanda have all been massively powered up over the years, almost to the point where you feel like writers are overcompensating for how weak they were portrayed in the '60s. That never happened with Jan, though Claremont did have Hank give her a small power boost in the Marvel Team-Up two-parter he wrote*. New powers usually don't stick around or aren't used much (like growing to giant-size) and she doesn't have the kind of powers that would allow for the kind of power creep and power hype the others get.

Which I think actually helped her, because it forced writers to find ways to make her useful that aren't based around constant power inflation (and the inevitable "too much power makes ladies evil" stories the other three have gone through). It does probably make it harder for her to get onto the team recently when so many writers seem to think the Avengers should be the most powerful team in the Marvel Universe, but I think that misunderstands what the Avengers are about.

*Marvel Team-Up 59 & 60 which, in my opinion, is the moment when Jan finally came into her own as a character, though not so much because of the power-up as because Claremont wrote her as one of his tough badass females, and she really needed that after so many years of mostly acting like a ditz.